Self Discipline: The Politics of Dancing

Grace Procs On The Two-Step, Fool!

I have a major problem: I can’t dance.

Oh, I can bust out a serious foxtrot when the need arises, using my actual real-life people feet, but I can’t for the life of me [Safety Dance] with that damnable, damnable, damnable Heigan in Naxxramas.

Every single time it starts, I say to myself: “You’re a physicist. You get paid to understand this stuff. You can sure as hell do it in WoW, dammit.”

And then I wipe the raid.

I’m appalled at myself but unable to curb the self-destructive tendencies. As a player, I’m enchanted at the challenge, but as a member of a larger group I’ve become the Heigan-pariah, Unclean By Association. I’ve never finished Naxx because- for obvious reasons- no one will let me go with them. Server PUGs, initially seduced by my gear score and enthusiasm for the Plague Wing of Naxx, have learned the bitter lesson that I am not to be trusted.

YouTube videos have been viewed. Diagrams have been consulted. I’ve cut out those paper feet and pasted them on my screen with associated arrows indicating when I must proc haste and when I must do-si-do. Nothing, and I mean nothing, seems to clear this mental block.

I tried once again last night with nine other people who now hate me, and I finally realized that I need professional help.

Hit from behind, to my shame. I am too slow (though I do try to stand *right* on top of the tank, I truly do!). And I hadn’t given any thought to the cracks vs. uncracked areas- that’ll be my next line of attack.

It has been a while since I was in naxx, but if you enter the room and are looking at the platform, the corner – absolute corner furthest away from the entrance is a safe spot.

You will not get hit by the waves that come up at all. You basically have to stand in the middle of the ramping bit…if that makes sense?

Regarding the cracks and no cracks, that was how I always managed to stay alive, there is almost a pattern to the floor and you run until just before the cracked areas, wait for the lava, then run to the next crack, it only took me about 2 attempts to see the difference in the ground and I never had a problem again.

Getting hit from behind means you are stopping to smell the roses for too long :) once the lava is gone don’t stand around :) Lag plays a little into that fight as well, so if you generally play with high latency you may never be able to do it successfully….

Hmm.. the way I do it is that I always keep an eye on the eruption. Because the area you’re about to walk into is always the one that has the stuff right before you walk there.

So I see where the stuff comes up.. then as soon as it’s clear I walk onto where it was. As long as you’re inside the area where there was an eruption a second ago – you’re safe. But yeah, you have to make sure you move in time.

It never worked for me either trying to look at the room and make diagrams or anything. I always managed to lose track of where the hell I was in comparison to point A and B.. so I started just looking at the green stuff coming up off the ground next to me. Once it’s gone – I move into it! And so on.

The one place of course to remember is when you get to the other side and you turn back again, but same idea really – you still walk into the area where the green stuff was a moment ago.

I don’t know if this tactic will work for you – especially if you’re pretty intent on raid frames and healing – but it’s my own little trick at least :)

I’m sure I used to run basically in a straight line about 5 yards right of the platform…?

The advice of looking ahead is bang on target too – and has me recalling years of showjumping, being told NEVER to look back if we felt the horse clip a fence as it went over as you needed to concentrate on the next fence… but I digress, kinda…

I found a really good set of graphics on YouTube that helped as well, I think it’s one of those fights that when you get your ‘eye’ into it, you kind of wonder why you struggled so much… I spent weeks eating dirt on the floor during it – the first time I was alive at the end there was a huge cheer down vent. I actually now have the Safety Dance achievement on a my old raiding priest.

It’s also a fight that’s twitchy, if you lag you’re a bit screwed…

As a disco-disco lady PoM and PW:S are your friends, and I have to say I tended to keep them on me as much as possible as I was so amazingly squishy :)

The other thing to share is that the first time we killed him it took 18 or 19 minutes, there’s a screenie on my blog somewhere, I think it was a tankadin, a tree and a shaman from about 5 minutes in, with the rest of us noming on dirt…

I’ll revisit YouTube and search around for some new videos; I should’ve done that earlier. And… 18-19 minutes? I’ve had relationships that didn’t last that long! (Hmm… that looks far worse written down than it did in my head).

Oh, I’ll throw down a Fish Feast for everyone when I make it! Now, of course, the problem is convincing everyone to come with me to test out these fabulous new theories :) I think they know me too well!

And I’ve been trying to comment on your blog for three days running with Evil Blogger Error Messages thwarting me at every turn. Not sure if I’m the only one experiencing that, but thought I’d give you a heads-up in case it isn’t just me (it probably is, though).

I reckon Saga’s advice is spot on. Make your runline just a smidge forward (i.e. closer to the platform) of where the roof pipe runs. Run to where the green just was. To counter minor lag make sure you start running as soon as the green starts going down, it doesn’t hurt on the way down only on the way up. And mouse turn at the end (as on Sindy) not keyboard turn — lotsa healers tend to keyboard turn as it means the mouse is free for healing, but there isn’t time, keyboard turning is too slow.
I recommend not healing at all during the dance phase the first time you learn it. Once you get to the ‘AHAH that’s how you do it’ stage you can heal away.
And I suspect if your lat is much over 400 you are pretty much stuffed no matter what you do . . . .
GOOD LUCK